During the Cold War era that followed the Great Galactic War, the Galactic Republic undertook the Taris Resettlement Initiative, an effort to restore the ruined world of Taris. The goal of the program was to turn the post-apocalyptic swampland that dominated the planet into a habitable Republic world. Taris had been ruined three centuries prior, when the Sith Lord Darth Malak razed the ecumenopolis in an effort to find Jedi Padawan Bastila Shan and bring victory to his Sith Empire in the Jedi Civil War.
After the reconstituted Sith Empire's victory in the Great Galactic War, the Republic Senate sought to pursue a colonization effort on Taris in order to score a symbolic victory against the Sith's aggression. The teams on the planet managed to establish a military base, a spaceport, and a number of settlements, but ran into difficulties while traversing the ruins of the felled Taris skyline. Additionally, victims of the Rakghoul plague still survived on the planet and posed a significant threat to the settlers. The Empire also posed a threat to the initiative, as a successful recolonization effort would show the people of the Republic that worlds could indeed recover after being attacked by the Sith.
The Republic had initial success with the resettlement. However, led by Darth Gravus, the Empire eliminated key people to the initiative and sabotaged it, thus making it a failure.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Explorer's Guide
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia